Anaheim Hills Shelter Fights Trash Charge

In the long-running feud between residents and an Anaheim Hills shelter for abused women and children, officials of Eli Home held a press conference Tuesday to deny a neighbor’s allegations that the shelter’s staff dumped sacks of new toys in the trash.

The city of Anaheim received a complaint Jan. 6 from a resident who said an Eli Home employee threw the toys in a large garbage bin outside the shelter’s office.

Program director Kim White told reporters that Eli Home employees did discard some toys after Christmas, but the items were old and damaged beyond repair. “The very thought of throwing away a new toy makes me cringe,” she said.

City officials investigated but found no evidence of new toys having been discarded.

“We sent someone out to investigate, and all we found in there was trash,” said John Poole, manager of code enforcement for Anaheim. “There were two soiled stuffed teddy bears, wrapping paper, two used board games and a few items of clothing. Everything was used.”

The incident is the latest clash between the nonprofit shelter and residents who lobbied against its opening in 1997 and argue that it is out of place in their affluent neighborhood.

Eli Home offers emergency shelter for as many as 22 people at a time. It accepts women and their children up to age 12 for stays up to 45 days. A resident manager and five staff members cover shifts around the clock and provide food, counseling and educational materials. Funding comes from donations, federal grants and payments from those who use the facility.

Lorri Galloway, executive director of Eli Home, said Tuesday, “We want to be left alone to do the work that is so desperately needed.” Some neighbors of the shelter, she said, “have a calculated and methodical plan to make sure our organization is destroyed.”

The shelter feeds and houses about 2,000 people a year, she said, on an annual budget of $250,000.

Galloway said she sees objections from some neighbors as racist and elitist. The children who come to the shelter, she said, are “black, white, yellow and red. We have children of all colors. There’s also an ignorance that children who have been abused are poor, so they’re discriminated against.”

Neighbor Gene Secrest said Tuesday that his complaints are not about its clientele but its style of operation.

“We think helping children is wonderful,” Secrest said, but he has concerns about how donations to the shelter are used and that the facility increases traffic and is a potential fire hazard on residential streets. “This has been about the credibility of the Eli Home.”

Residents have raised such issues about Eli Home since 1993, when organizers first proposed a shelter in Anaheim Hills. Despite objections, Eli Home Inc. paid $125,000 for a seven-bedroom house, obtained a permit from the city in 1994 and took in its first clients three years later.

Since then, Eli Home has filed slander lawsuits against three residents, one of them against Gene Secrest. The shelter lost two of the suits, and the third was dismissed.

City officials said the feud shows no signs of fading.

“It’s been quiet lately in that neighborhood, and then this issue of the toys came up,” said Poole, of the city staff. “I wish everyone could work together, but it looks like we’re a long way from that.”